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My dear friends and fellow South Africans,

Last July, America's fabled National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC)
news anchorman, Walter Cronkite, passed away. He was 92. Cronkite was
to me, like millions of Americans and people around the world of my
generation who remember when radios were called wirelesses (and before
we went wireless!), a familiar face. He was already a well-known face
when I spent a couple of weeks in Chicago, during my first visit to
the US, in 1963. Later I had the pleasure too of being interviewed by
him: a real gentleman

Cronkite pioneered and then mastered the role of television news
anchorman with such plain-spoken grace that he was called the most
trusted man in America. He was, as the New York Times put it, "a
nightly presence in American homes and always a reassuring one,
guiding viewers through national triumphs and tragedies alike, from
moonwalks to war, in an era when network news was central to many
people's lives. "He became something of a national institution, with
an unflappable delivery, a distinctively avuncular voice and a daily
benediction: "And that's the way it is." He was Uncle Walter to many:
respected, liked and listened to."

Cronkite, also (and I want you dear reader, for a moment if you will,
to think laterally and insert HIV-Aids or the arms deal in SA here)
like Robert F. Kennedy, spoke a language critical of U.S. policy in
Vietnam that appealed to the middle class. They could get away with
harshly criticising Johnson's war in Vietnam without worrying about
being told they were "unAmerican", although their political enemies
tried. In those times, integrity was all. Why do I recount this? I am
writing about the need, as I see it, to 'home-grow' our own
super-class of genuine and independent political-cum-current affairs
analysts: a new calibre of South African Cronkites and Sir Richard and
Jonathan Dimblebys.

I am amazed when I open the newspapers or watch television at the
sheer ubiquity of so-called political analysts; we might have more
political analysts per ratio than doctors! I am sure we have some very
fine very minds, but, with all due respect, there is a dearth of
genuine bona fide independent political analysts who are not
sympathetic to or are blatantly in the pocket of the ANC: men or women
who could credibly say "And that's the way it is." I am obviously not
speaking of political science graduates who conduct research for
political parties and think- tanks, but individuals who by dint of
their mastery of detail and the unmistakable power of their
impartiality are conduits of the news.

Refining this question further, we can clearly see the dilatory impact
of the absence of such a gold standard class of political analysts
upon the dire and partial coverage of South African politics. The
party I lead, the Inkatha Freedom Party, has long been sidelined by
the media and my political obituary must be the longest
leave-partaking note in the history of humanity. Political analysts
have long predicted the demise of the IFP without any serious
evaluation of why people, at the last election, in the words of one
academic, "voted for the IFP, despite the Zuma factor and the method
of politics by which the IFP sets itself apart from other parties
continue to resonate with and to reflect the opinions of more than
800, 000 people. If Zuma could not capture these votes from the IFP,
who possibly can?" Indeed. The Zunami was going to sweep the IFP from
the face of the earth, remember?

As an aside, it is worth noting that while President Zuma seeks to
promote reconciliation between the ANC and the IFP, one prominent
political analyst is, as Anthea Jeffery's book People's War reveals,
was a leading member of Umkhonto we Sizwe and was then, as now, a
fierce opponent of the IFP.

Last week, the IFP won three by-elections in KwaZulu-Natal. The
result, especially the previously contested ward three in Imbabazane
(the Electoral Court declared the results of the March by-election
invalid after the ANC formally objected), received scant coverage. I
would have thought that this might have been interesting to a
political analyst worth their salt and, perhaps, could have merited an
interpolation with recent trends or even a rough projection for the
2011 local government election result. What I am sure of is if we had
lost two of the by-elections, there would have been rather more
coverage along the lines of "IFP in freefall" or 'Buthelezi's last
stand" etc. Did you see how much coverage Cope received when they
recently won the Thembisa by-election, despite a litany of by-election
disasters before that? Where is the serious analysis?

Then there was the much vaunted launch of the presidential hotline
'17737' the week before last. I thought I better go to demonstrate
that the opposition supported worthy ? if a bit gimmicky ?
initiatives. Alas, I was only to be joined by my colleagues from the
ACDP and the PAC. Maybe, just maybe, our other colleagues knew
something we did not or, like the DA apparently, were just trying to
get connected to the hotline only to be disconnected after thirty
minutes or so. SABC television interviewed me about the hotline. I
said something along the lines of: "I welcome this because at last
government has awoken from its slumber and wants to hear from real
people about their concerns about issues like HIV-Aids and crime." To
put this in context, you might recall that a few years ago the ANC
benches in parliament and then Deputy-President Zuma rocked with mirth
when the former ANC Chief Whip Mr Mbulelo Goniwe mocked me for
suggesting that every South African had been affected by crime.

So, with this in mind, 'Yours Truly' also dutifully gave the same
comment in isiZulu after the English recording. My comments did not
appear on the news in either language and, I suppose, anyone watching
the news might think my colleagues' and I had gone along to merely
support the government as opposition cheerleaders and chew the fat
with the President. As if! What is clear as a fish rots from the head
downwards, the lacuna of a gold standard class of political analysts
is "dumbing down" our entire political discourse, and inhibiting the
style of national conversation which democracies like America and
Britain have long enjoyed.